Improvised bomb explodes on UK train

A home-made bomb exploded on a packed rush-hour commuter train in London injuring 22 people on Friday, police said, in what was being treated as the fifth terrorism attack in Britain this year.

Passengers on board a train heading into the capital fled as fire engulfed a carriage at Parsons Green underground station in West London after the explosion at 8.20am.

Some suffered burns while others were injured in a stampede to escape. The National Health Service said 22 people had been taken to London hospitals. None were thought to be in a serious condition, the ambulance service said.

"We now assess that this was a detonation of an improvised explosive device," Britain's top counter-terrorism officer Mark Rowley told reporters.

He said most of the injuries were thought to be flash burns.

Rowley declined to answer whether the authorities knew who was responsible or if the suspected bomber had been on the train.

Pictures taken at the scene showed a white bucket with a supermarket freezer bag on the floor of one train carriage. The bucket was in flames and there appeared to be wires coming out of the top.

Related Articles

"I was on second carriage from the back. I just heard a kind of whoosh. I looked up and saw the whole carriage engulfed in flames making its way towards me," Ola Fayankinnu, who was on the train, said.

"There were phones, hats, bags all over the place and when I looked back I saw a bag with flames."

Another witness, who did not want to be named, said: "It was every man for himself, people were panicking, people just ran over each other. There was a lady with badly burned legs, it was pretty shocking. The woman I was with was just run over - it was a stampede."

Outside the station, a woman was sitting on a pavement with a bandage around her leg, while another was being carried off on a stretcher with her legs covered in a foil blanket.

Prime Minister Theresa May returned to London to chair a meeting of Britain's emergency response committee later on Friday. She said the official terror threat would remain at severe rather than being raised to critical, which indicates an imminent attack.

"My thoughts are with those injured at Parsons Green and the emergency services who, once again, are responding swiftly and bravely to a suspected terrorist incident," May said.

"This was a device intended to cause significant harm."

She wasn't the only world leader to condemn the attack.

"Another attack in London by a loser terrorist," US President Donald Trump said on Twitter.

"These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!"

British police have not said anything about who could be behind the attack. A witness saw armed police scouring a stationary train and a bomb disposal unit at the scene.